“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” 
― Marcus Aurelius

7 years later

“Daddy, daddy, daddy !” A voice called and Chen immediately turned to look at the owner of the voice with a huge smile on his face. He squatted down as he spreaded his arms wide, preparing to embrace the little figure that was running towards him with her tiny little feet.

“Aigoo my star is here to visit me today.” Chen said as he hugged his daughter tightly. The little girl, who was 7 years old, giggled in her father’s hug and tried to break free from him. A woman who was only watching them from the side, smiled upon the scene.

“She was so excited to come and see you today. She can’t wait to tell you about her first day at school.” SuBin said as she sat on a chair in front of Chen’s table. She placed her daughter’s bag on the chair beside hers as she watched her daughter climbed and sat on Chen’s lap.

The three of them were at a library, Chen’s workplace. Chen worked as a book-binder, a person who repaired and took care of damaged books. He always mended the poor conditioned books in the library and also books that were sent to him to be repaired. Not only people who lived in the village, but those who lived in the big city will also personally come to him to have their books taken care of as Chen did an excellent job fixing them. Besides, there were not many people with jobs as a book-binder.

Even though his job didn’t give him a high pay, but still he managed to support his family and made do with what they had. Chen was still able to supply food, clothing and a shelter to his wife and daughter even though he was only working as a book-binder. Chen loved his work as he could also continue what he was doing at home.

Back to the current situation, Chen was listening patiently to his daughter who was telling him about her beautiful school, her irritating friends, and also her teachers that some she had taken liking to. SuBin only smiled as she watched the both of them when suddenly she remembered about the lunch that she had made for them.

She looked around and realized that she had left the lunch basket at home while she was getting ready to pick ByulHee, their daughter up. Maybe it was because she was scared that her daughter will be waiting for her hence she hurried around the house until she forgot the lunch that she had cooked.

SuBin stood up from her chair and said to Chen and ByulHee, who were still immersed in ByulHee’s story, “Chen, I left our lunch at home so I’m going to do a quick run to go and fetch it okay ? Our house is not that far from here though.”

Chen frowned a little before he answered, “Oh, okay. But be careful okay ? Do you need me to come with you ?”

SuBin shook her head a little with a smile as she said assuringly, “Nope. I’ll be fine. You stay here with ByulHee okay ? It will only take just a minute.”

With that, SuBin exited the empty library and left Chen and ByulHee alone. Usually during that time, no one will enter the library yet but after about two hours or so, then it will start to get full.

“So do you like your school?” Chen asked his daughter who was still sitting on his lap. ByulHee smiled and eagerly nodded at her daddy’s question. “Yup. I like my school. But I don’t like my friends.” She said the last sentence with a small pout.

Chen laughed at his daughter’s cuteness and shook his head a little. He knew that little ByulHee was always having trouble making new friends. It wasn’t that ByulHee wasn’t a nice girl or annoying, but she just couldn’t simply get along with some of the kids in their place. Besides, her whole life, she only had her daddy and her mother. ByulHee didn’t have any other siblings so the people who she had seen everyday were only her parents. Hence she even decided that there was no point in mixing around with the others since she already had her parents who she loved dearly.

However, Chen also knew that she did try to mingle with the other kids but there was something that made the other kids didn’t one to be friends with her. ByulHee herself couldn’t fathom the reason why. She too realized that the way the kids were looking at her was different and it seemed like they were actually avoiding her.

ByulHee asked Chen once, about why the other kids sometimes sneered at her whenever she said hi and simply rolled their eyes when she was around and tried to fit in the group. Being the little girl she was, she couldn’t help but to feel curious.

Chen always answered, then, that the other girls were just probably shy to be friends with her so they tried to avoid her. Or also maybe because she was just too cute that the other kids were probably jealous of her.

Chen’s last sentence always made him receive a glare from SuBin, his wife, as she often said that she didn’t want ByulHee to be over-confident about herself as she was worried that ByulHee might grow to behave in a conceited manner.

“Your mom is taking such a long time, ByulHee. She said it won’t be that long.” Chen said as he glanced at his watch. Time was ticking and it had been an hour since his wife left the library to go home and pick up their lunch and he started to get a bit worried. He knew that their house wasn’t that far from the library and it might take only fifteen minutes to get there.

“Maybe mom stops by at a shop to buy drinks.” ByulHee said as she tried to ease her father’s worry even though she was actually trying to console herself. They waited a little more when the door of the library was flung open and for a moment, they thought it was SuBin.

But sadly, it was Jung Ahjussi, their neighbour next door who was very nice to Chen and his family.

“JongDae ah !” Jung Ahjussi exclaimed as he quickly made his way towards Chen and ByulHee. Jung Ahjussi was panting hard and his chest was rising up and down as he stood in front of Chen and his daughter.

Chen was looking at Jung Ahjussi worriedly as he had never seen the old man looking so concerned and troubled before. He was sweating heavily and his face was a little red and Chen assumed that he had been running here. Something must have gone wrong, or Jung Ahjussi won’t be like this.

“Jung Ahjussi, what’s going on ? You don’t really come here that often but why all of a sudden ?” Chen asked once he was sure that the old man had calmed down. After finally being able to catch his breath, Jung Ahjussi looked at Chen with a sad expression as he laid a hand on Chen’s shoulder.

Chen’s eyebrows met as he was very confused with the old man’s action. ByulHee came and stood next to him, too with a confused look on her face.

Jung Ahjussi looked both at Chen and ByulHee as he sighed and said, “Your wife, Chen.”

Chen’s eyes w